The Chelsea Smile had emerged into real space in a belch of exotic fire, huge portions of its front armour had been gouged away, leaving reams of open decks and super structure open to space, still venting atmosphere, fire and drive plasma into space. It's underside launch bays had been reamed open into a vast slash across the underside of the once proud vessel. Once mighty weapon turrets had been ripped away, leaving potholes across the broken hull, and half of its bridge section had been torn asunder. Almost all of the power had been drained from its nuclear reactors and its FTL system still leaked volatile radiation into the coldness of space, painting the whole region in beta and gamma particles, creating beautiful but deadly plumes of invisible energies.

The shadow it cast over the bridge was undeniable, Safros could make out hundreds upon hundreds of tiny fires spouting from its outer hull.

The captain turned from station to station attempting to assess the situation, to little avail. Power still fluctuated, monitors would flicker in and out of life, the lights would turn on and off out of all control and various systems gained and lost short bouts of power across the ship.

Through the outer bridge windows, Safros could only make out the now tiny, drifting specs that once where the Solaris's figate escorts - in the same situation the smaller vessels would suffer to re-activate their single core antimatter systems with even fewer redundancy systems to back up thier combat systems.

In the vast distance, un-noticed by failing sensors, hundreds of specs broke free of the hull of the Chelsea smile, powered by unholy energies they sped across the darkness between the war vessels. No metal hull to detect, no tell tale engine signatures to announce their arrival, the ovoid ships slammed into their targets.

One frigate exploded outright, split asunder after being hit by three vessels one after the other. Another was split in half by a cross shot, atmosphere, fire and unprotected crew thrown into the void, doomed to drift around in deep space for eternity.

Another frigate however, was not as lucky to suffer the luxury of a sudden death, as the strange white vessel broke through the hull - the only sign that anything had even happened where the bursts of small arms fire shot out in odd, concentric angles.

When the last frigate turned to fire on odd specs in the void, the situation suddenly became clear. The Solaris was the next target, and hundreds upon hundreds of the un natural vessels where descending upon it . . .

They swarmed. Hundreds of ovoid vessels, each as large as an assault shuttle - turning to and fro in the void, slamming into the hull of the Solaris, completely bypassing its failed shields and beyond the wrath of its laser turrets - first dozens, and then almost a hundred of the ships collided with the hull, forcing their way into the ship.

It was only at this point, that sensors re-activated and internal alarms wailed - boarding alarms and hull breaches across the holographic display of the Solaris that dominated the centre of the bridge.

The captain grabbed Safros by the shoulder and broke him from a panic induced moment of non-action.

"Luitenant, are you here? are you good?"

"Ye-yes captain . . . " Safros stammered in return.

"What have we got here?"

The sensors struggled to keep their bearings on the odd vessels as standard ideas of materials and physics seems to bounce off of them in wild sparks of non-solved equations and unknown mathematics.

"No occupants . . . no engines, no power source . . . these things are solid all the way through sir . . . solid . . . "

"What? What have you got?!"

"The ships sir . . . they are solid bone . . . "

-----

In aft section, deck six a young gunnery Sargent by the name of Harkins ran. He ran hard.

The sound of laser fire could be heard ahead, that fast sound of boiling air and recharging anti-matter vials - fast - to fast to be a rifle carbine rifle, a deck hands pistol, somewhere up ahead, someone was fighting for their life. The deck lights thrummed under the shudder of another collision, and then failed - a scream of death could only just be heard over the solid boom of yet another explosive decompression.

As a Scythian Marine, he was trained to be the best, the best of thousands of millions, above standard or tactical infantry - trained for every situation, to assess and react in a moment, he turned down one corridor and up another set of stairs - he bound over the corpse of a dead engineering officor, laser pistol in hand, and blood gushing from his chest - open wound, the projectile was still inside . . .

It was at that moment, he saw the movement in front of him and dived into the opening of a side corridor, just in time to watch the space he just ran through being filled with deadly projectiles - white, bone white - and fast . . . some form of flachette gun perhaps?

The barrage stopped for a moment, he dropped to his knees, turned and fired.

What faced him was a menagerie that could only have been born from some level of hell he was sure he was one day going to occupy.

Its form was tall, twisted - gleaming white bones, no flesh or skin - just bone, its skull wrapped in a deathly sadistic grin, carrying some form of rifle also made out of solid bone.

He had seen it, it had seen him - unluckily enough for the undead beast, it had been a moment too slow.

Harkins finger jammed down on the trigger finger, and blue lances of light capable of scoring through tank armour shot forth, removing the unfortunate creature of the use of its legs. As it fell to the floor it took another blast of its chest, before the final blast caused its skull to explode like a fragmentation grenade. Its remains fell to the floor, still smouldering.

Before Harkins could find time to lower his rifle, he saw what it had been stood in front of. Breaking through the hull was a gateway of bone, the orifice that the strange craft had created. The entire drop ship was bone, and it was splitting itself down into foot soldiers until there would be none of itself left, leaving the entire section open to space.

Behind him more footsteps rattled, more marines coming forward to the fight . . . and in front - skeletal fists burst through the hull breach, followed my arms and weapons, and more demoniacally grinning faces . . .

Last edited by The Shadowscythe on Sat May 29, 2010 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Combat boots pounded against solid titanium deck plating, the whine of laser carbines filled the air, which was hot and dry, and stank of death. Harkin's was down on one knee, he held his laser carbine rifle to his shoulder with a death grip - acquire target, charge, fire - acquire target, charge, fire. 7 years of service and training drilled into him - the calm repetitive motion of battery firing dropped skeleton after skeleton as they emerged from the orifice in the Solaris's hull. He knew more soldiers had taken positions somewhere behind him - and yet more had taken up positions on the far side of the corridor. their combined fire only just holding back a hoarde of undead monstrosities that where determined to rip apart all life in front of them.

It was only then he started to notice the breeze for himself - a slow trickle of air from behind him, as more undead split off from the main mass - air was escaping from the hull breach . . . and when the undead stopped.

Complete decompression.

Harkins pulled back into his small heath of safety and yelled back to the marines behind him.

"CEASE FIRE!"

The barrage continued, unrelentingly - combat training had unfortunately been drilled into these troops so hard that they had focused on the tactical picture, and not the strategic.

"WILL YOU FUCKS CEASE FIRE?! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!"

It was at that moment the hull started to buckle, the barrage continued as the flow of skeletons stopped - and then one was pulled suddenly back into the main mass, and the breeze turned into a full blown gale force wind. The barrage stopped - and Harkins ran back, keeping all focus on his grip to the floor and the hull, not stopping to look behind him.

His fellow soldiers however, had not realised what was happening - decompression alarms began to sound, and before they could even move against the flow of events - one was lifted clean off of his feet, with no foot or handholds, he was lifted up and down the corridor - and then straight into the vien covering of bone across the hull breach. He still screamed as Harkins bolted down the corridor section.

He screamed as Harkins hit the bulkhead seal, and a meter thick titanium bulkhead sealed the unfortunate soul from Harkins and his fellow soldier.

He still screamed as the blood that flowed from the bone spikes that impaled him flowed out into space, and then froze into red globules.

He still screamed as the air itself finally gave way to deep space. He still screamed inside his own head for another minute as his trachea froze, his eyes and ears burst, and then he finally suffered cardiac arrest.

Harkins turned to the commander of the infantry unit that had been providing support - dazed and confused from the attack, and the sudden loss of one of his men.

"Soldier, Report"

The soldier stood there, as if in another world from his unending stare into the nothing above Harkins shoulder.

"SOLDIDER! REPORT! Do you know anything about what's happening to the ship?!"

His sub-ordinates however, while shocked - still looked as if they could be in the fight, Harkins turned to them and started to rattle off orders.

"Looks like your squad leader is fubar - so listen up. Put him in a hole somewhere, out of the way, safe and sound - Then get to work. These things are both troop carriers and weapons - as they split down they cause hull breaches, too many of those and this ship is dead. Contain these things and lock down the affected sections. Its a battle of attrition - do NOT let these things win, or they take us with them. I need one of you as a runner with me - we need to get down to the central armoury and break out the SIBAS suits so we can take the fight to these fuckers, you hear?"

One soldier nodded, we was young - very young, probably not much out of his 20's.

"I'll join you sir"

"Good boy, hope you have fast legs, the rest of you follow the orders I've given, and pass them onto anyone else you see" Harkins finished - He gave the young soldier a moment to get to his feet.

"You ready? This is gonna be a speed run"

A moment later the pair set off, down cross-sections, corridors and down run-ways - as the ship around them burst into total warfare.

Safros was still sat at his station in the bridge - watching the chaos unfold.

The ship PA system had been knocked out - so individual stations where being used as an impromptu communications bridge using the wall-mounted comms units throughout the ship to build a picture on the central holographic display as to how badly the ship was going to hell.

And going to hell it was.

Almost half of the outer decks had been taken by the enemy - huge red chunks expanded throughout the skin of the ship as the enemy took section after section, and those red areas where being chased by chunks of black, as more and more of the ship was being rended open to space.

"Sir - Main armoury is reporting that they are bringing the SIBAS suits online, and are asking for priority defence zones"

The captain stood in the middle of the room, directing orders to individual stations, which in turn delivered orders throughout the ship.

"Captain - All communication with the main hangar bay has been lost! Apparently one of those drop pods flew right into it"

"Order all nearby units to get to that hangar bay and eradicate that foot hold - they can get to almost every deck from there!"

-----

Harkins ran again, bulkheads and sections became a blur - fellow soldiers ran as well - some towards the fight, fresh and readily armed, others limped back, bloodied and beaten - others where carried back, in stretchers or body bags.

Somewhere behind him, the younger solider followed - his pacing broken, but keeping up none the less, as they turned the final corner and down the stairs into the central armoury.

Inside the Armoury - A dozen quarter masters handed out pistols, rifles and heavy weapons to soldiers who in turn, then ran to their next deployment zone, Harkins cut through the crowd to the closest quartermaster.

"Marine Gunnery Sargent Harkins, requesting the use of two SIBAS system's, PAVL and twin laser carbine pistols for each" He simply stated to the quarter master - who entered the details into a small handheld tablet computer. A moment later the quarter master looked up to Harkins and simply replied "Clearance granted sir, come this way"

The trio reached a smaller armory room - who's walled where filled with SIBAS suits, the pinnacle of Scythian battle armour - an armoured battle suit with 3 inches thick of Titanium armour and the most advanced robotic feedback system known to Scythian science, powered by an Antimatter system usually reserved for light tanks - piled in with the most advanced networking computers, capable of real-time battlefield data sharing and co-ordination, every SIBAS suit would become the eyes and ears for every other SIBAS user, so long as one soldier saw a target, they all saw it - and could all co-ordinate their attacks against it.

The Quarter master led Harkins and the younger solider past ten already empty ranks - to two newly prepared suits.

"These two are ready to go now, while you suit in - we'll get your weapons sir" The quarter master stated, as he then turned and half-jogged from the room.

"Sir? I've never used one of these before, are you sure I can-" The young soldier began.

"Look, kid - just stand into the foot-cuffs and stay still - the suit will do the rest" Harkins replied, as he stood into the open foot-cuffs.

The SIBAS suit replied to his presence, as the foot-cuffs sealed around his own ankles, and then the entire inner-skeleton began to form around his legs, with a series of mechanical whines and clicks - the inner suit had formed all the way up to his chest, and then the outer armour began to fold, click and lock around him. As the central chest plate rose upwards, the face plate came down - and he was quickly sealed inside the metal coffin.

For a moment, all Harkins could see was darkness, as he was sealed in with his own breath, and then the holographic display kicked in, showing Harkins a complete 3d representation of the world beyond, as if he was looking directly through the armour and into the actual outside world.

With a final click, the armour gave way - and he could finally move his arms and legs once more, with a thunk against the ships hull plating, his footsteps anchored himself forwards, a hulking metalic beast.

Beyond the armoury - two decks up and a few hundred feet down open corridors and bulkhead laid the second barracks, usually a place of rest for the ships onboard marine squads in between being on duty - was now a blood bath beyond all recognition.

Blood smeared all the walls, bunk beds had been torn asunder - and corpses littered every space of the floor, and in a few cases - the walls and ceiling too.

Despite the efforts of a dozen co-ordinated defence teams, the marines simply could not hold back the entire undead hoarde that was descending upon them from every direction, for every monster killed, another ten took its place in the ranks.

Even the training and might of Scythian marines, couldn't hold back the endless waves, which where now twisting the fallen into fresh undead effigies - a cruel mockery of what used to be brave and loyal soldiers.

This was Harkins first destination, and his armoured footsteps pounded through the ship at speeds far faster than he could normally run.

In one hand, he held a Scythian PAVL - the Portable Anti Vehicle Laser, designed to punch holes in tank armour from extreme range, and the other held a Carbine Pistol on automatic fire setting - both where charged and ready to unleash hell.

Another corner turned - and in front of him, bloodied marines where falling back, most bloodied - some missing limbs, others being dragged back from the lines of hell itself - and beyond them, a writhing mass of bone and flesh beyond reason and logic.

There was no need to think, or aim - he simply raised the PAVL and pulled the trigger. Laser refractors aligned and the weapon unleashed its fury - a lance of blue heat that flash-fryed flesh and bone, ripping a clean hole from one side of the mass through to the other, igniting the air itself on the way through, an unimaginable screech of pain erupted from the beast as muscle, sinew and tendons burst into flame and blood.

He didn't need targets after that - he simply kept the Carbine pistol firing, over and over again it blasted through the beasts that arose from the central mass as the last sinews released fresh skeletons for the fight - only to be slammed down by Harkin's assault.

He reached the outer most edge of the mass and jumped onto its macabre joke of an outer skin and kept going, firing outwards and downwards into every sign of movement from the nightmare.

At the entrance - the young private still stood - a Carbine pistol in each gauntleted hand - endlessly firing on every target Harkin's couldn't hit as the last few Scythian Marines pulled back.

"Keep my position covered, when I tell you - Seal the doors from the outside and don't open them until I give three orange lights, you got that?" Harkins barked down the open comm link to the young private. A Green status light blinking on his hud was the only reply he got - message received.

A curios design aspect of all Scythian vessels was their symmetrical layout design - in which the main antimatter reactor was always towards the rear of the ship - and then a central "backbone" provided power to the rest of the vessel - splitting down and down again like the branches of a tree, and like the branches of a tree - there where places where a branch could be bent, or snapped - and this beast was currently sat a deck below a secondary plasma conduit - filled with plasma burning as hot as the sun itself - and enough of it to completely sterilise the entire section.

He continued to bolt up the mass, as more and most bony fists and contusions erupted from it - he raised the PAVL upwards and gave the signal - three orange hud lights.

A moment later the doors sealed - the Private had completed his task well.

Harkins pulled the trigger.

-----

"SIR! MASSIVE HEAT SPIKE IN THE SECONDARY BARRACKS! A SECONDARY PLASMA CONDUIT HAS BEEN TAKEN OUT!" A voice screamed in panic across the bridge - the captain didn't even turn to look over at the station and simply replied.

"Anyone in there is already dead from the plasma - vent the entire section to space - alert damage response teams and re-direct defence teams away from that area, may Mother Scythia have mercy on thier souls . . . "

"Sir - There appears to be an energy reading in the main hangar bay . . . its growing rapidly . . . readings unknown"

"Get me the closest defence team to the main hangar bay immediately . . . "

Vent port 17-C suddenly vented drive plasma as hot as the stars themselves into space. As curls and blooms of heat twisted and died, a single silver speck was ejected into the void, spinning wildly on a vector that would lead it far beyond the Solaris in moments.

The Sibas suit has survived its plunge into the plasma, and its ejection into space - but its red and brown colour scheme had been burned clean away to reveal its silver and gray underplates, with scorch marks covering every exposed corner and contusion.

Inside the suit, Harkins watched as the stars danced around his head.

Unfortunately, the SIBAS suit was not designed for use in Zero Gee, and although it was sealed against vacuum, it contained no thrusters or propellant - Harkins was doomed to die, eventually the life support would fail, or he would be shot apart by one of the enemy.

Freeze, choke, or die by fire.

Some choice.

He looked down to his hands, one still held onto the PAVL fast, the other still contained the Carbine pistol.

A thought stuck, a moment of inspiration - he aimed the Carbine pistol outwards and fired, velocities changed as his angle of rotation slowed.

Suddenly, he had propellant.

He aimed slowly, and pulled off the trigger in three round bursts, each burst of light and heat was enough to slow his rotation to a halt. Next came the process of aiming his back towards the Solaris, a gradual process of turning and manoeuvring got him ready for his next move.

He raised the PAVL to the centre of his mass, and set its power to maximum, and pulled the trigger again.

The massive burst of light sent him flying back towards the Solaris with a kick of speed, that was met with his sudden collision with the outer hull.

He arced himself slowly around and grasped the hull, looking upwards to the far end of the hull, he muttered to himself "And now comes the hard part" as he prepared for whatever would happen next . . .

(Yes, I am well aware that laser may or may not do this, but guns in space (cordite or gas firing) would act as minor propellants in space - I'm using artistic licence here to save Harkins from space death. Besides - this is brikwars, live with it! =P)